Tract #23: Tough Questions for Christians

It’s possible to be both philosophically rigorous and a Christian, but far too many Christians have not asked themselves enough tough questions about their own beliefs to make sure that they are indeed rigorous. Here are a few they might consider:

Does God have free will? Could He choose to do evil?

What crime deserves an eternity of punishment?

What does it mean when you say that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one? Can you form an analogy to make this more clear?

Some Christians pray to Jesus in the hope that he will intercede with God. Does this make sense if Jesus and God are the same person?

If human evils must be allowed so that we can have free will, why did God also create natural evils, like floods and disease?

You believe in the supernatural. How do you know when to reject supernatural explanations for things like UFOs or spontaneous human combustion?

How can you tell false and true religions apart? Where do false religions — including false Christian sects — come from?

What is a Christian? Are there any groups of people who call themselves Christians that are not really Christians?

If God sometimes interferes in human events, why didn’t he either prevent the Holocaust or arrange for it to end sooner?

If prayer can help someone get into Heaven, does this mean that someone who went to Hell might have been saved if someone had prayed for them? Is that fair?

If God told you to kill a child, would you do it? If God told someone else to kill a child, would you interfere?

If you believe homosexuality is wrong, would you encourage Christian girls to marry gay men and end their lives of sin?

Why aren’t amputees ever miraculously cured?

Why are modern-day miracles less impressive than those in Biblical times?

Does God value faith more than He values belief based on evidence? If so, does that make sense?

If you pray for an answer to a question, how do you know when God answers? Could it be that you are being deceived by a demon?

How can you tell the difference between a prayer that’s been answered by God and a coincidence that happens to coincide with your desires?

If some of your beliefs are based on what you feel in your heart, do you accept as true what others feel?

Did all of the people who lived before the time of Jesus go to Hell? Is that just?

Can people who never hear about Jesus go to Heaven?

If God gave us intelligence, wouldn’t he want us to examine our beliefs with reason?

One Response

Written by Jason Eden
on December 4, 2011 at 1:13 am Reply · Permalink

This is an *outstanding* list of questions!

For the record, I am a Christian, although I hate to admit that in many initial conversations because of the identification I get with folks who probably couldn’t make it past the first four questions on your list. Some of them aren’t nearly as hard as they look, but some of them require a lot of context to form a coherent answer. They *do* have answers that fit into a logical, science-based Christian world view, but I’ll be the first to admit to you that this does not describe the world view of most who call themselves followers of Jesus. It’s a constant source of pain in my life… :)

I have to say, I’ve just discovered and *love* your site. It’s well reasoned, internally consistent, and doesn’t strike me as being overly agenda driven. Thanks for openly allowing room for one to be philosophically rigorous and a Christian. I appreciate your tone, as well as the humor with which you present a lot of your materials.

You (or you all, if more than one person is behind this) are someone I would love to get to know. It’s rare to get to have conversations with people who disagree who can do so in a reasoned, logical manner. I imagine you’d enjoy conversations as well. Who knows, you might even find it valuable to have a point/counterpoint discussion on these topics? I’m always up for that kind of fun.

You presumably have my email address as a result of this post – feel free to reach out if you’d like. At any rate, thanks again for the awesome site!